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[Spinless]

Me and a friend recorded a spontaneous jam session. Listenning to it's a laugh. But now I have a 90 minute wav file and I don't know what to do with it.
 Software for breaking it apart into smaller parts, changing it's format and doing other little things to it? Adding more layers? Nice drum sequences?
I could use google, but I want to know what you guys find the most convinient.
Don't just drop a name and run, I want to know why you use that software.
One teeny problem, I'm flatout broke. Has to be free. Unless you can hook me up some other way (which would be pretty kickass).
If you must, then do recommend pay4ware, I just won't be able to use it (at least until I have money, which could be months away).
 As for the recording part of this thread, what do you have to watch out for? Where do you put the mic? Any way to reduce 'buzz'? Tips and tricks to get the best out of your guitar/amp/keyboard/whatever? I once saw a guy put some tissue paper around a frame and fix it infront of his mic, what's that for? Know any unorthodox ways to get a weird sound?

And, by all means post your own projects and fuckarounds, but keep in mind there's a whole other (active) thread for that, so don't get carried away, just use them as examples and stuff, 'Hear that buzz 22 seconds in? that's because...'

[BrittanyMarie]

I'm not very well-versed in this, but my ex records a lot of bands in Fargo and I think they sound pretty good. I think ProTools is generally considered to have the best bang for your buck (He got it off a p2p) and is relatively user-friendly. And: buy some nylons and stretch them out in between the mic and your mouth when singing. Otherwise anytime you say a "p" sound, you get a little air whoosh.

[BrittanyMarie]

nonono ... Fargo is a town. He records a lot of bands in the city of Fargo. Sorry!

(Come on man it is even a Cohen Brothers movie!)

[Rubby]

Ha! I live for this shit.
It sounds like what you need is a little program called cool edit pro (although it was recently bought by adobe and the newest version is called audition, but that's beside the point). It's not very "job-specific" so you can use it for any type of audio editing you want to do (as opposed to, say, sound-forge which is more built for sample savvy folks who primarily use Acid pre Sony buy-out). The reason I mention cool edit is because it has a track splitting option where you can take one big audio file, place markers to indicate separate tracks and instantly save each one to any format at any sample rate you would like. It sounds like what you want is mp3's at about a 128-192 bit rate with 41000 kb/s sample rate. That's about CD quality but it won’t take up too much hard drive space. If you're a beginner with all this, that might sound daunting, but there is actually a really simple, user friendly option menu when you "Save As" an audio segment. The thing with cool edit though, is that it’s also a sequencer, so once you're done re-formatting your audio data you can throw it into the sequencer and layer in all the drum tracks you please.
Cool Edit is not free-ware (although there might be a trial version), but...um, let’s just say I'm sure you can find it.

edit: Yeah, the nylons before the mic thing. The hissing "ess" noise is called sibilance and it can damage your mic, your speakers and your ears. Dont let it happen to you!

[Thrillho]

Quartz is good for what you want, but shite for actual recording. It uses .wavs, so you should be okay with it.

I use it. But it's cack at everything except what you want to do from the sounds of things.

[Mikendher]

I've been recording stuff for a couple of years. Here's some hopefully useful information:

- I use Adobe Audition 1.5, and prefer it to all other recording software I have tried, based on capabilities, presets, and learning curve.

- Whenever I record any track, I immediately run through whichever of the following are necessary, in order:

1. Noise Reduction - do this first, always. Usually I do about 40% noise reduction so that it doesn't distort the sound.
2. Graphic Equalizer - decrease frequencies that you want to be quieter. almost never increase frequencies, because this can cause noise and distortion.
3. Compressor - this causes your whispers to be heard just as much as your screams, depending on how much you compress. I usually do about 2:1 ratio for guitars (this means that it will halve volume increases above whatever the threshold is set at).
4. Reverb - almost everything you record will need at least a little reverb, unless you are recording in a REALLY nice room, like a concert hall
5. Whatever else you want to do

- Vocals should usually be about 5 inches away from the mic, unless it's overdubbing or backup, in which case farther away is fine.

- Mic positioning is fairly difficult with acoustic guitars. Read up on XY spaced pairs, but really just have a friend move the mics while you play to find a good position. You should almost always use stereo condenser mics.

- Most mics come with a pop-guard. If not, try find one, they are useful for recording vocals and removing those annoying pops in "p" and "b" sounds.


If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask!

[Rubby]

I've been recording stuff for a couple of years. Here's some hopefully useful information:

- I use Adobe Audition 1.5, and prefer it to all other recording software I have tried, based on capabilities, presets, and learning curve.

- Whenever I record any track, I immediately run through whichever of the following are necessary, in order:

1. Noise Reduction - do this first, always. Usually I do about 40% noise reduction so that it doesn't distort the sound.
2. Graphic Equalizer - decrease frequencies that you want to be quieter. almost never increase frequencies, because this can cause noise and distortion.
3. Compressor - this causes your whispers to be heard just as much as your screams, depending on how much you compress. I usually do about 2:1 ratio for guitars (this means that it will halve volume increases above whatever the threshold is set at).
4. Reverb - almost everything you record will need at least a little reverb, unless you are recording in a REALLY nice room, like a concert hall
5. Whatever else you want to do

- Vocals should usually be about 5 inches away from the mic, unless it's overdubbing or backup, in which case farther away is fine.

- Mic positioning is fairly difficult with acoustic guitars. Read up on XY spaced pairs, but really just have a friend move the mics while you play to find a good position. You should almost always use stereo condenser mics.

- Most mics come with a pop-guard. If not, try find one, they are useful for recording vocals and removing those annoying pops in "p" and "b" sounds.


If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask!

I have to disagree with some of the stuff you said.
First noise reduction (which is actually just a combo of filters and compressors) isn't often necessary. If there is any unwanted noise, it's best to just find the frequencies and manually remove them with a decent EQ. Noise Reduction (I'm assuming you're using the one in Audition) disrupts frequencies which should be left in and can fuck with the phase of the audio.
Second, reverb should be applied before the compression. If you spend a lot of time compressing, then put reverb over top it can screw up all you efforts to that point (provided you're not using insert effects)
Third. True stereo condenser mics are lovely and delicious, but there are certan things that just don’t work well with them. It would be good to read a short tutorial on mic usage which can be found with Google.
That is all.

[Kai]

I don't know who reccomended Cool Edit Pro, but I totally agree. I love that program very much.

[Oli]

If yer looking for free and don't need it to be the top end of the market (it is free after all)

Get:

AUDACITY!

It's free so it's awesome!

I think they have a site, I can't remember. Google it.

Also I use fruity loops to create a drum track on the PC (I prefer recorded, but OBV that's not possible in some rooms/set ups) but that costs money! You could just download it if yer not too bothered about that...

but Adobe Audition is a really good program if you feel like getting into music editing/recording.

[Rubby]

Thats the best way to do it. It's a simple program, just play around and you'll get it eventually.

[Mikendher]

Rubby:

Usually for me (and most home recording people) it is still necessary because of background noise that is not eliminable by the EQ.

About the reverb/compression order, it can go either way. It depends on what kind of reverb you are adding. Sometimes compressing after can change the reverb in unwanted ways. On the other side, sometimes reverbing after can fault the initial compression.

About the stereo condenser mics, I was only suggesting that they are almost always necessary for recording acoustic guitars.


Spinless:

You mean one sound file into different tracks? Not really. Sometimes if the instruments or sounds are in different frequency ranges or something else that allows you to separate them, then it is possible.

[Rubby]

Rubby:
Sometimes compressing after can change the reverb in unwanted ways. On the other side, sometimes reverbing after can fault the initial compression.

Good point.

Seems simple enough. Just one thing has me stumped. Can I split a recording with a lot of sounds into layers?

I'm assuming you mean taking out, say...the guitar track from one single track recording? The only way to do this I can think of is to get, like, a 50 band EQ and find the specific frequencies associated with the guitar and take the other ones out, save that as a different file name and repeat the process for each instrument in question. This is not in any way recommended. It's tedious and will likely sound bad. The thing with recording is that you have to think ahead. If you want to fuck around with the guitar and/or the vocals (just for example) separately, you need to record them on different tracks initially, allowing you to make the mix you desire and then mix it down into one big final mix. I'm sorry but if you've already recorded something without separate tracks for each part you're kinda out of luck.

[nescience]

You've just identified the problem every home recordist faces.

[Mikendher]

Nope, my problem is lack of instruments. I need more

[Rubby]

Nope, my problem is lack of instruments. I need more

Heck yeah more instruments. I wish I knew how to play some bowed instruments. That would be rockin!

[Mikendher]

Guitar FX BOX is pretty good for that. It lets you set all sorts of effects, like different kinds of distortion, reverb, phaser, etc.

Plus there are cracks for the demo online that are easy to find

[Scandanavian War Machine]

my band uses pro tools or something like that. it serves its purpose well. but as far as i know it doest come cheap...or maybe it does. i dont know, i didnt buy it.

[nescience]

Spend the extra money on a microphone and a USB-microphone interface, and mic your amp to capture guitar sound through whatever free recording software (Audacity, etc.) you use, recording the amp in your closet if necessary.  It will sound much much better.

[Mikendher]

I agree about the USB interface, they are often very good quality. Hard to setup sometimes though

[Kai]

Or you could buy a fancy little contraption (I can't think of what it's called) but it basically is a converter plug thing, you plug your guitar chord in and then you can plug it into the microphone jack. Works great for me.

[nescience]

Depends on your taste, I guess.  I happen to think that direct-line guitar setups sound shitty for recording, but these days people are doing it more and more...

[Mikendher]

Direct line is worse quality unless your sound card is amazing.

[Kai]

That's the thing. My sound card IS amazing.

[nescience]

I don't buy it.  Go old-school.

[Rubby]

That's the thing. My sound card IS amazing.

What kind of sound card is it? I did the same thing and thought my sound card was amazing, but then I bought this sleek and stylish 4 channel PCI Interface with some sleek and stylish preamps and my sound is so much more sleek and stylish then it ever was with that so called amazing sound card

[Rubby]

That's just skill man. Eventually you'll learn how to keep this from happening. I dont really know how to explain it.

[Kai]

Use whatever finger you're playing the E string with (I'm assuming your index finger) to just litely mute it. YEAH

[Mr. Oysterhead]

Or you could buy a fancy little contraption (I can't think of what it's called) but it basically is a converter plug thing, you plug your guitar chord in and then you can plug it into the microphone jack. Works great for me.

I use that alot as well because sometimes there's some unexplainable, unremovable buzz coming from the amp/pa.

[nescience]

Then ditch the fluorescent lightbulbs!

[Rubby]

Or you could buy a fancy little contraption (I can't think of what it's called) but it basically is a converter plug thing, you plug your guitar chord in and then you can plug it into the microphone jack. Works great for me.

I use that alot as well because sometimes there's some unexplainable, unremovable buzz coming from the amp/pa.

Perhaps something is not grounded. If you have a live signal loop going on somewhere in your connections, it will create a buzz. You can read online about how to stop this but don’t kill yourself (you actually can kill yourself trying to ground signals).
p.s. The plug thing is called a 1/4" to 1/8' adapter, or in "cool-guy slang" a big to little.
edit pt. 2: Come to think of it, a more likely problem than a lack of ground would be that the adapter is fucked. The patch chord is kinda heavy and sometimes it can pull the adapter slightly out of the plug in your sound card if the fit isn't snug enough. If that's the case, just push it in a little bit.